Imagine you and your family and friends on a beautiful spring day dancing to live music, building with pine cones, learning to juggle, meeting your next feline or canine family member and having a ball all while helping the planet? This is how Oakland Zoo celebrates Earth Day!

Humans around the globe have been celebrating their connection to and reverence of the planet for centuries. It makes sense that our modern society would create a day such as Earth Day: a special day set aside to appreciate and take action for our one precious planet. Earth Day was first officially celebrated in the United States in 1970, and is now celebrated in nearly 200 countries each year.

Oakland Zoo also feels that the Earth is indeed something to celebrate, and therefore we produce one of the largest Earth Day events in the East Bay. This year our event is on Saturday, April 19th and we are calling it a Party of the Planet.

Earth Day fits our mission perfectly: To inspire respect for and stewardship of the natural world while creating a quality visitor experience. What could be more inspiring than making a genuine connection with over fifty visiting organizations who work to help animals and the environment? Other inspiring experiences will include creating with natural objects in the Create with Nature Zone and making beaded necklaces that help the lives of people and chimpanzees. Quality experiences will be had by all, such as a full day of educational shows in the Clorox Wildlife Theater with live animals, the Jug Bandits Band and Wildlife Action Trivia. Quality fun will be bountiful the meadow with our giant earth ball, circus antics, face painting and a real trapeze show with Trapeze Arts.

Other highlights of Earth Day include: a free train ride with donation of used cell phone or ink cartridge, voting for your favorite conservation project at the Quarters for Conservation voting station, Oakland Zoo docent and eduction stations, and of course, visiting our resident animals.

To further walk the talk, Oakland Zoo will be hosting our monthly Creek Crew clean up of Arroyo Viejo Creek on the grounds from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM.

Hey Kids! Zena the ZooKeeper here to talk about what you can do for wildlife conservation! With Earth Day coming up, what better time is there? I’m sure you already do things to help wildlife all year round; like picking up litter around your school or local park, so animals don’t get sick trying to eat it. Or not bothering wildlife like baby birds in their momma’s nest, and always recycling to stop wasting things, and to reduce the amount of trash we make.

Those things are great to do, and today I’m going to tell you about some things you can do that maybe you haven’t even thought of yet. Part of helping wildlife is being a compassionate consumer. That means buying products that don’t hurt animals or wildlife. Like avoiding food made with unsustainable Palm oil. Did you know that people sometimes tear down the rainforest to build Palm oil plantations, where they plant and grow thousands of palm trees? This is happening right now with the tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia, where the rainforest is home to orangutans, tigers, sun bears and millions of other species of wildlife. Once a rainforest is destroyed in order to plant palm trees, its habitat is ruined and these animals’ very existence is threatened!

But there is good news. There are companies that plant palm trees in a way that doesn’t ruin the rainforest and destroy habitat. These companies grow and sell sustainable Palm oil that doesn’t result in the loss of important habitat. Learn more about how to shop smart and buy products that use only sustainable Palm oil on our website. You can also download a poster for kids about Palm oil and how it is related to helping elephants.

Another important thing you can do to help animals is to never release pets into the wild. Sometimes people don’t understand how much care and work a certain kind of pet may need, and when they find they can’t take care of it, they just leave it outdoors somewhere. That’s really sad. Because the pet is not native to the new habitat, it usually dies or starts killing other animals or eats plants or destroys nesting sites which can really hurt the environment.

An example of this involves the Western Pond Turtle (WPT). Some people decided they didn’t want their pet turtles anymore and released them into the wild, where they were a non-native species and preyed on the WPT and its food sources. To help conserve the WPT, Oakland Zoo has a head-starting program to help rebuild the WPT population. Learn all about it here.

So, be sure you research online and find out all about the kind of pet you want before committing to it. And when choosing the right pet for you, always consider getting a rescued animal and please don’t choose a primate or other exotic pet.

And of course, educate others about conservation! If everyone does their part, then we can all be conservation heroes and change the world for all wildlife and humans alike!

As a leading presence in a community that attracts more than 700,000 visitors each year, Oakland Zoo strives to bring attention to important concerns in the field of wildlife conservation. For many years, the Zoo has demonstrated its ability to move forward in addressing these concerns. As one of our guiding principles, this commitment to conservation can be seen right here in Oakland, where we’ve initiated a variety of programs within the Zoo and surrounding Knowland Park to help preserve native species of plants and animals. Through our docent program, community outreach, and ongoing Conservation Speaker Series, we’re able to provide the public with relevant messages about species, alert them to the various conservation projects that the Zoo is involved with, and give practical tips on how they can help. Like the roots of a tree, these local efforts branch out in a regional and state-wide scope. Partnering with conservation organizations throughout California, Oakland Zoo supports projects that provide maximum results with the available resources.

Oakland Zoo’s commitment to native species and wildlife is showcased in several programs currently underway:

• Western Pond Turtle Head-start Program: The Western Pond Turtle is the only native aquatic turtle in California. Oakland Zoo, in conjunction with Sonoma State University and the San Francisco Zoo, began the first Western Pond Turtle head starting program in California. Through a combination of raising and releasing hatchlings, research, in-field studies, and education, this partnership seeks to further understand and support the reintroduction of this shrinking population. To date and through this conservation effort, Oakland Zoo has helped reintroduce more than 500 Western Pond Turtles into the wild.
• Biodiversity Center: A new Zoo facility focused on conserving California species. In August of 2013, this 2,000 sq. ft. complexwas opened and is dedicated to small animal research, rescue, and rehabilitation while incorporating educational programming and interpretive messages on how to conserve native wildlife. The California Biodiversity Classroom will educate visitors on the crucial interdependence of plants, animals, people, and the environment as well as the importance of becoming responsible stewards of California’s rich natural heritage through hands-on, interactive scientific research activities including “citizen science” projects, habitat restoration, and field biology workshops.
• Mountain Lion Response and Care: Oakland Zoo, working in partnership with various agencies, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, provides support to respond to mountain lion conflict incidences in the Bay Area. The Zoo offers the program staff expertise, capture and dart equipment, and a state of the art veterinary facility to care for and rehabilitate a mountain lion until its release back into the wild.
• Mountain Lion Research: Through a partnership with the Bay Area Puma Project, our skilled staff is working in the field to better understand the behavior of mountain lions with the goal of learning to better co-exist with this apex predator.
• California Condor: As part of the California Condor Recovery Team and in partnership with Ventana Wildlife Society, Zoo staff members are trained in field research and the vital medical treatments these awe-inspiring birds need to recover from lead poisoning. The Zoo has built The Steve and Jackie Kane Condor Recovery Center, a facility specifically designed to treat the massive sized birds, where chelation treatment on the birds can be conducted by our veterinary staff. Oakland Zoo’s Education Department has also developed extensive student programming around this highly endangered species, which includes field studies and classroom research.
• Mountain Yellow–Legged Frog: In partnership with with Vance T. Vredenburg, Ph.D and San Francisco State University, this program involves the support of field work, conservation efforts and treatment procedures to save this species of frog from Chytrtid Fungus. Through research focusing on resistance to the fungus, the future goal is to breed and reintroduce captive bred froglets back to their natal lakes and streams.
• Butterfly Conservation Initiative: Oakland Zoo, a founding member of the BFCI, has contributed to its success in a number of ways, most notably with the debut of its Barbara Robbins Memorial Butterfly Garden in May 2003.

• Restoration of Local Creek Watershed: In 2008, the Arroyo Viejo Creek restoration project included creek restoration, extensive removal of non-native plants, re-planting of native plant habitat, six new outdoor classrooms with seating made from eucalyptus trees felled at the site, interpretive signage, and a connecting trail. Currently, Oakland Zoo’s Volunteer Creek Crew meets monthly to steward this stretch of the Arroyo Viejo Creek.

• Earth Day: Oakland Zoo’s “Party for the Planet” is celebrated at Oakland Zoo as a means to offer our many partners and colleagues in the environmental and wildlife fields a forum to interact with 5,000 zoo visitors on Earth Day. It is also an opportunity to build relationships that share the mission of conserving the natural world.

• Local Seed Stock for Native Grassland Protection: In 2012, more than 40,000 native Knowland Park seeds were gathered in order to germinate, create a reserve, and replant areas around our new Veterinary Hospital and in Knowland Park.
• Long-Term Commitment to Habitat Enhancement in Knowland Park: In 2011, Oakland Zoo developed a comprehensive Habitat Enhancement Plan for Knowland Park and the future “California Trail.” Habitat enhancement will be achieved through the control and eradication of invasive species and the subsequent re-vegetation of native ones.
• Conservation Speaker Series: This series of evening lectures provides the opportunity for the public to meet and hear leading scientists and researchers in various areas of local and worldwide conservation. Upcoming topics include saving the mountain lion and California condor.
• Quarters for Conservation: By involving Zoo guests in the voting process, this program allows them to choose how their money is used for conservation programs in the field, be it the Uganda Carnivore Program, helping the Reticulated Giraffe or the saving the highly endangered Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog.

Here at Oakland Zoo, we’re proud not only of our many ongoing conservation efforts but also the dedicated staff members who help support them. Among our many skilled educators, veterinarians, fundraisers, marketers, volunteers and animal care professionals, all are enthusiastic about participating in the efforts to protect these native species. One look out the window of the offices or a quick stroll through the park can reveal an abundance of wild turkeys and deer, with regular sightings of foxes, skunks, herons, egrets, hawks and many other birds. The presence of these native wild animals illustrates quite simply how two worlds often thought to be separate from one another can easily co-exist side by side.